A meta-analysis of relationships between organizational characteristics and IT innovation adoption in organizations

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Information & Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.Adoption of IT in organizations is influenced by a wide range of factors in technology, organization, environment, and individuals. Researchers have identified several factors that either facilitate or hinder innovation adoption. Studies have produced inconsistent and contradictory outcomes. We performed a meta-analysis of ten organizational factors to determine their relative impact and strength. We aggregated their findings to determine the magnitude and direction of the relationship between organizational factors and IT innovation adoption. We found organizational readiness to be the most significant attribute and also found a moderately significant relationship between IT adoption and IS department size. Our study found weak significance of IS infrastructure, top management support, IT expertise, resources, and organizational size on IT adoption of technology while formalization, centralization, and product champion were found to be insignificant attributes. We also examined stage of innovation, type of innovation, type of organization, and size of organization as moderator conditions affecting the relationship between the organizational variables and IT adoption

Role of Resource-based View in Predicting ERP Perceived Value: Higher Education Perceptions

Higher education institutions (HEIs) nowadays focus on using strategic information systems as part of their digital strategy. An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can help HEIs manage their resources and operations effectively to meet this challenge. Based on reviews, this study conceptualizes the influential ERP factors into the resource-capability configuration. A preliminary study on ERP among 40 HEIs in Egypt was carried out for the Egyptian HEIs to explore their perception of the ERP system as a new integrating tool for their value and advantage. The results revealed that a high percentage of HEIs had not yet adopted these systems, despite their positive attitude towards the value of ERP systems. They are still at the developing level because these systems have not yet been adopted. This study also helps to advance ERP concepts and provides practical verification in the context of higher education. Finally, this research guide HEIs to understand the ERP system's necessity as a strategic system proposing them to adopt ERP systems for their competitiveness.   &nbsp

A Comparative Analysis between SMEs and Large Companies in Relation to Integration Technologies Adoption

Integration technologies like Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Web Services allow organisations to collaborate with their partners, increase flexibility and gain competitive advantages. Despite the benefits that the integration of Information Systems (IS) can offer to enterprises, little attention has paid on the adoption of integration software by Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The body of literature suggests that the findings that derive from the study of large enterprises can not be generalised and applied in SMEs due to the nature and characteristics of SMEs. In an attempt to study this area, research questions were raised. These research questions are investigated in this paper and supported the authors to propose a research model. The proposed model might be used to explain why SMEs and large organisations take decisions for the adoption of integration technologies focusing on different factors. The results of an empirical study carried out on a sample of 102 companies of any size in Taiwan are presented, aiming at highlighting any significant difference in the way SMEs and large companies approach integration technologies

Challenges and influential factors in ERP adoption and implementation

The adoption and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is a challenging and expensive task that not only requires rigorous efforts but also demands to have a detailed analysis of such factors that are critical to the adoption or implementation of ERP systems. Many efforts have been made to identify such influential factors for ERP; however, they are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the different perspectives. This paper focuses on the ERP critical success factors from five different perspectives such as: stakeholders; process; technology; organisation; and project. Results from the literature review are presented and 19 such factors are identified that are imperative for a successful ERP implementation, which are listed in order of their importance. Considering these factors can realize several benefits such as reducing costs and saving time or extra effort

A Big Bang versus a Small Bang Approach: A Case Study of the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) and the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul Initiative (MROi)

In 2003, the United States Air Force embarked on one of the largest and most comprehensive logistical transformation to delineate the logistics community’s strategy for supporting the warfighter. A key aspect of this campaign plan was to leverage information technology through an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution called the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), a “big-bang” approach. In early 2012, the ECSS program was cancelled mainly due to uncontrollable increases in costs and schedule overruns. In late 2012, the Air Force Sustainment Center (AFSC) launched the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul initiative (MROi), a “small-bang” approach, to increase enterprise visibility and efficiency across all three Air Logistics Complexes and Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group. Additionally, MROi should fill some of the gaps deferred by ECSS. MROi is a means to salvage, correct, and continue the work started during the ECSS project. AFSC attempts to transform itself into a more capable organization thru MROi while providing savings to the taxpayers from resulting improvements in efficiencies. The MROi team attempts not to ignore lessons learned from ECSS; however, MROi is delayed by acquisition category determination, system implementation source selection, and network architecture evaluation, which are out of their control. Critical success factors, antecedents, and theories were discovered that can help develop a framework that may be of great importance to the government

Towards a Framework for Smart Manufacturing adoption in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Smart Manufacturing (SM) paradigm adoption can scale production with demand without compromising on the time for order fulfillment. A smart manufacturing system (SMS) is vertically and horizontally connected, and thus it can minimize the chances of miscommunication. Employees in an SME are aware of the operational requirements and their responsibilities. The machine schedules are prepared based on the tasks a machine must perform. Predictive maintenance reduces the downtime of machines. Design software optimizes the product design. Production feasibility is checked with the help of simulation. The concepts of product life cycle management are considered for waste reduction. Employee safety, and ergonomics, identifying new business opportunities and markets, focus on employee education and skill enhancement are some of the other advantages of SM paradigm adoption. This dissertation develops an SM paradigm adoption framework for manufacturing SMEs by employing the instrumental research approach. The first step in the framework identified the technical aspects of SM, and this step was followed by identifying the research gaps in the suggested methods (in literature) and managerial aspects for adopting SM paradigm. The technical and the managerial aspects were integrated into a toolkit for manufacturing SMEs. This toolkit contains seven modular toolboxes that can be installed in five levels, depending on an SME’s readiness towards SM. The framework proposed in this dissertation focuses on how an SME’s readiness can be assessed and based on its present readiness what tools and practices the SMEs need to have to realize their tailored vision of SM. The framework was validated with the help of two SMEs cases that have recently adopted SM practices

Antecedents for the Success of the Adoption of Organizational ERP Among Higher Education Institutions and Competitive Advantage in Egypt

Although the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system has long been acknowledged in higher education institutions (HEIs) to improve their performance and efficiency, there are not many HEIs in Egypt that adopt ERP system and those that do are in an early stage. The research on ERP system in HEI is still limited and in the immature stage, hence little is known about the success factors for the adoption stage of ERP systems. Consequently, this article aims to understand what are the success factors for ERP adoption and further develop a conceptual model that explains the successful implementation of ERP in HEIs and its impact on competitive advantage. Based on previous studies, this paper identifies and conceptualizes success factors for ERP and further develops the proposed model for the adoption of ERP system in HEIs. This article contributes to the development of the theoretical framework of the successful implementation of the ERP system to explain the competitive advantage of HEI by merging information system (IS) success and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theories with the success factors for the adoption stage of ERP systems. The current study will provide recommendations and guidelines for both the potential adopters and the vendors on the successful ERP system adoption

Drivers and Barriers for Industry 4.0 Readiness and Practice: A SME Perspective with Empirical Evidence

The technological development is moving rapidly enabling manufacturing companies with new possibilities for digital transformations to offer products and services to current and new markets at competitive costs. Such modern technologies are, among others, discussed under the umbrella term Industry 4.0. This paper reports on the results of a questionnaire-survey of 308 small and medium-sized manufacturers about their readiness for digitalized manufacturing and their actual practice in this area. The paper provides empirical evidence for that perceived drivers for Industry 4.0 lead to increased Industry 4.0 readiness, which, in turn, leads to a higher degree of practicing Industry 4.0. The paper also finds that barriers make companies less Industry 4.0 ready but this apparently does not have any significant impact on Industry 4.0 practice. The results are of importance for companies in planning transformation processes towards digitalized processes

A Review of Cloud-Based ERP Systems in SMEs

The adoption of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) could offer significant benefits in terms of managing the resources and support business function. However, the traditional ERP systems are quite expensive and have complex procedures for the adoption especially for SMEs. With the introduction of cloud-based ERP systems that have similar functionalities with traditional ERP, SMEs are now able to adopt this system. However, the adoption of cloud ERP remains low and question arise on how to encourage SMEs to adopt this system. Drawing from management and Information Systems literature, this study proposes and conceptual framework for cloud ERP adoption among SMEs. Using archival analysis approach and technology-push and demand-pull as the theoretical background, this research has come out with six main themes namely:  firm qualities, internal pressure, external pressure, technology features, organizational readiness and external support. This paper will give significant benefits to ERP vendors to understand their potential buyer’s behaviour towards the adoption of cloud ERP

Investigating factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation: An exploratory case study

The rapid developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have resulted into a borderless business environment along with an amplified market competition. Traversing through such a trend globally, organisations have significantly focused on adopting and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to automate their prime business processes, enhance organisational productivity with lower costs and prompt service delivery to fulfil consumer demands. Thus, ERP systems are considered as a principal source to provide imperative information vital for strategic decision making process. On the contrary, ERP systems adoption and implementation is also highly considered as a challenging and expensive process that not only requires rigorous efforts but also demands to have an exhaustive investigation of influential factors that are critical to the adoption and implementation of ERP systems. A plethora of research studies have been theorised exploring factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation; however, the authors claim that these studies are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the different perspectives. Notwithstanding, the implications of such research have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. This paper thus focuses on the ERP critical success factors from five different perspectives such as: stakeholders; process; technology; organisation; and project based on the literature analysis. These perspectives comprise of 24 factors that are imperative for a successful ERP adoption and implementation, which are validated through a qualitative single case study based research. The empirical findings illustrate that these factor help realise significant benefits such as reducing costs and saving time or extra effort